Misty Bennett
Region: South
Younger. Thinner. More popular with friends. More successful in business. More attractive to lovers. Looking better than ever, conquering your first wrinkle, perfecting your body, starting over, fighting loss, ending suffering.
This body of work explores the physical, visceral, intellectual, and emotional quagmire of consumerism. There lies within us a deep and powerful desire to be more than we are, and these paintings explore that murky field with equal joy and terror. To consume means, ultimately, to destroy the object of your desire, and I have chosen to reference this by using the color palette of French Rococo painting, the icy blues and lurid pinks favored by the court of Marie Antoinette, as well as the contemporary cosmetics industry. These paintings also include symbols drawn from nature, from plants like poison ivy, to molds and funguses that grow slowly and parasitically until they take over their host completely. What may begin as a simple yet beautiful adornment of nature can turn into a suffocating over saturation of limitless appetite.